NASA Armstrong X-Press, July 2018
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration Volume 60 Number 7 July 2018 Armstrong assists on AA-2 By Jay Levine LAS performance prior to travel X-Press editor with a human crew. When the Orion spacecraft is on “The DFI is designed to collect the launch pad preparing for liftoff critical test data from 890 sensors atop the Space Launch System (SLS) across all four modules of the flight rocket, the crew module will have a test vehicle including the LAS, the launch abort system (LAS) mounted crew module, the separation ring on top. If there is a problem on and the booster,” said Gary Martin, the launch pad or during the first Armstrong’s Orion AA-2 project few minutes of the ascent to orbit, manager. astronauts could use the system to Armstrong specializes in separate from the rocket and escape instrumentation and integration to safety. of systems and was chosen for Armstrong has played a key role in these tasks because of the center’s developing systems and subsystems expertise, he added. The first of for an upcoming test of the LAS in two major data acquisition systems 2019, called Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2). departed Armstrong in May for During the AA-2, a test article integration into the Orion test sized and weighted to represent AFRC2018-0108-2 NASA/Ken Ulbrich article at NASA’s Johnson Space Orion will launch on an abort test Center. April Torres and Jeffery Sutherland complete a systems and functional check booster from Cape Canaveral Air In addition to collecting all the on the master data acquisition system for the Orion Ascent Abort 2 crew Force Station in Florida. Then data for the crew module, the crew module. The system was sent from Armstrong to NASA’s Johnson Space Center the LAS abort motor will fire to module data acquisition system will in Houston recently. propel the Orion test article to a also collect the LAS research and safe distance away from the rocket. store it on the data recorders. Also before it splashes into the water. flight instrumentation (DFI) All required data will be captured contributing to the data collection Armstrong is designing, subsystem that will collect and and stored on 12 NASA-developed is a digital camera system that will data recorders enabled with GPS acquiring, integrating and return engineering data to validate and ejected from the crew module supporting the developmental computer models of the spacecraft’s AA-2, page 6 Air Force designates QueSST as X-59 Jim Banke forever be known in the history “For everyone working on this will make to our nation and the Aeronautics Research Mission books as the X-59 QueSST. important project, this is great world will ensure its place among Directorate The U.S. Air Force, which is the news and we’re thrilled with the the greatest NASA X-planes ever NASA’s newest experimental government entity responsible for designation,” said Jaiwon Shin, flown,” Shin said. aircraft, designed with quiet assigning X-number designations NASA’s associate administrator for The X-plane number designation supersonic technology and intended and the popular name associated aeronautics. continues a tradition of naming to help open a new era in faster- with the aircraft, officially informed “I’m confident that the than-sound air travel over land, will NASA of their decision June 26. contributions the X-59 QueSST X-59, page 8 www.nasa.gov/ X-Press July 2018 New Shepard launches By Leslie Williams needed, depending on the results Armstrong news chief from the flight. Blue Origin successfully launched “A lot of the next steps are driven its New Shepard rocket from the by discovery,” said Collicott. “We company’s West Texas launch have to ask: What did we miss in our site with five NASA-supported predictions? Are phenomena coming technologies onboard July 18. For into play that we didn’t anticipate? each of these payloads, this flight You have to fly to be sure.” was one in a series of suborbital Discovery is also key for a system demonstrations to facilitate designed to gather electromagnetic technology development. field measurements developed The flight helped researchers by the Johns Hopkins University collect critical data to help them Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). confirm theories, refine previous The objective for this flight was to results and fine-tune experiments characterize the electromagnetic field for future testing. environment inside the spacecraft Selected for flight test by Flight to understand the potential effects Opportunities, many of the payloads of strong external and internally on this New Shepard flight aim to generated fields on the spacecraft provide value to other payloads and payloads. on future flights. For example, a Echoing the other principal sensor package developed at NASA’s Courtesy of Sophia Porter investigators on the flight, PI H. Johnson Space Center in Houston The NASA SFEM-2 team stands by the Blue Origin capsule after a successful Todd Smith noted the value of will help characterize suborbital test launch and landing that tested sensor technologies for measuring critical data. being able to secure suborbital flight environments — data critical demonstration through Flight for implementation of technology test environment.” Green and his team flew a specific Opportunities. and science payloads. Some of the payloads flying on subset of the isolation technology on “Flight Opportunities is the “What we’ve done is put together this Blue Origin flight also aim to the flight, gathering data necessary only way we’ve been able to secure an instrumentation package that provide value to other researchers. to tune the full system for a future funding for flights,” Smith said. can gather data to characterize For example, the company Solstar Blue Origin flight. “We might not be doing what we’re the environment on these flight sent the world’s first commercial Other researchers leveraged doing today if it hadn’t been for the platforms,” said Johnson’s Kathryn tweet from space on the Blue the flight to gather data to reach support NASA has provided for our Hurlbert, principal investigator Origin flight in April. This time, the specific goals. technology development.” (PI) for the SFEM-2, which stands company continued work toward Purdue University flewThrough the program, the Space for Suborbital Flight Experiment increasing the robustness of WIFI an experimental predictive Technology Mission Directorate Monitor-2. “The data we gather will in space with an antenna designed technology for the control of (STMD) selects promising help identify the types of payloads to withstand the rigors of a rocket liquid droplets and avoidance of technologies from industry, academia that would be good candidates for demonstration. liquid plugs in tubes — important and government for testing. The Flight testing on a suborbital vehicle.” Also, onboard New Shepard was considerations for condenser flow Opportunities program has helped SFEM-2 measures critical data, the Vibration Isolation Platform passage design in phase-change to test and mature 136 technologies such as acceleration, pressure, from Controlled Dynamics. heat transfer systems. Such systems through 162 suborbital flights. The temperature, humidity, carbon Designed to isolate payloads from are advantageous for spaceflight program is funded by STMD and dioxide levels and acoustic levels. the disturbances of flight – the because they provide better power managed at Armstrong. This sensor package first flew with platform is also capable of creating capacity, lower volume and better “NASA needs technologies that Blue Origin in April 2018. This environments required for a temperature uniformity. enable space exploration,” said Ryan time, the SFEM-2 team was able to particular test scenario. “We’re flying the experiment to Dibley, NASA Flight Opportunities test the technology for a different “A main advantage of the test our computer simulations so campaign manager. “The Flight flight profile. platform is that it can cancel out that we can publish that data and Opportunities program funds flights “We modified the acceleration certain kinds of disturbances for show the research community that on commercial suborbital vehicles to measurement range, allowing us anything that’s mounted to it, or it our tool is useful for designing test these technologies in a relevant to capture higher g levels from can introduce excitations at specific systems for the weightlessness environment, enabling researchers the flight,” said Hurlbert. “This, times to enhance an experiment,” of spaceflight,” said PI Steven to validate their technology, as well combined with the data from said PI Scott Green. “This platform Collicott. as fostering the public and private the first flight, should provide an is destined to be a resource for Collicott also acknowledged relationships that grow this nation’s extensive set of parameters of the future payloads.” that further development may be economy.” X-Press July 2018 Askins awarded scholarship The NASA Armstrong Employee News Exchange Council has presented its 2018 Harold W. Walker Memorial at NASA Scholarship Award to Erin Askins. Askins is a 2018 graduate of Tehachapi High School in First major Tehachapi. She is seeking a major in civil engineering at Rensselaer SLS rocket Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, this fall and set to play NCAA hardware softball for the institute’s team called the Engineers. She earned a 4.22 assembled grade-point average and graduated in the top 2 percent of her class. The first major piece of core stage hardware for NASA’s Space “I was shocked at first that I Launch System rocket has been was chosen out of all the qualified assembled and is ready to be applicants,” Askins said. “This joined with other hardware scholarship will be very, very for Exploration Mission-1, the helpful toward college and earning first integrated flight of SLS and my education.” AFRC2018-0181-1 NASA/Ken Ulbrich the Orion spacecraft.